The Isle of Wight Pop Festival

More than a year after Woodstock, the third Isle of Wight Pop Festival was held August 26–31, 1970, on the island of the same name off the coast of southern England. The previous year’s festival had attracted about 200,000 people, most of them drawn by the opportunity to see and hear Bob Dylan, whose performances were still sporadic in the wake of his 1966 motorcycle accident. In 1970 some 600,000 people showed up, though only about 50,000 bought tickets, and many encamped on the hill nicknamed “Desolation Row” overlooking the fenced-in grounds, which one gate-crasher compared to “a psychedelic concentration camp.” The performers that year included Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Miles Davis, the Who, the Moody Blues, and Canned Heat. Jimi Hendrix also appeared, turning in an indifferent performance that was to be the last before his death. This was also one of the last performances for Al Wilson of Canned Heat, who died soon after of a drug overdose.

The festival was resurrected in 2002, and former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant opened it with a set that included a cover of Hendrix’s “Hey Joe.” It became routine for acts to pay tribute to the festival’s original incarnation, but over time the reborn Isle of Wight festival developed a character of its own. It expanded to feature dozens of performers on multiple stages, and its annual attendance approached 100,000. It also served as a model for environmental responsibility with the introduction of a scheme that reduced the festival’s carbon footprint and stressed the importance of recycling.